As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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We got an early start to the day with our bags out at 8 am. We wandered the lodge a bit, picking up a light breakfast before boarding our bus at 9:45. We hit the road on the way to Seward. Bill was a great driver and the drive was uneventful, even though there was a lot of road construction. Since the road was two lane, that meant we sat at a standstill from time to time. That road construction is quite normal, since the weather only allows a short time frame for road maintenance. The route is extremely scenic and beautiful. I heard from some that it is really one of the best legs of the Alaskan Train ride. We arrived in Seward around noon. Bill drove us around downtown a bit, while Patricia pointed out several sites. We soon unloaded at the harbor with about 1 ½ hours to wander around and get some lunch.
We then boarded a boat for a 3 hour wildlife tour of Resurrection Bay. The weather was drizzly and cool for the first time on our vacation, but the boat was enclosed so quite comfortable. I did go out on the bow several times for picture taking. Humpbacks, sea lions, porpoises, eagles, puffins and gulls galore entertained us. Unfortunately, my pictures of the whales and eagles weren’t very clear.
This short video shows just how noisy the birds were at the rocks. The captain encouraged us to go out and take pictures with the warning, “Be careful if you look up!”
After returning from our boat ride, we boarded our bus and headed to the Seward Windsong Lodge. It was a lovely, somewhat rustic, place with numerous lodges scattered in the woods. We were in the Elderberry Lodge. This resort was also without air conditioning, but because the lodge was tucked in the woods and the weather had been particularly cool today, it wasn’t missed at all. We had a really nice little balcony that overlooked the woods. There was a sliding screen door, so we could open it if we wanted to cool the room.
The weather had cleared by this time, and the air was very clean, making it very nice to walk through the woods to the restaurant. We were right across the road from the river. I had salmon on my salad tonight, which was supposed to be from that river. Of course, the salmon hadn’t really started to run this year, so I don’t know if it was really from there or not.
After dinner we headed back to the room to settle in. We had all of our luggage returned to us tonight, so we could tag it with our cruise tags, as tomorrow we board the ship. Lauren and Jon had been traveling to Alaska today. We got a text from them at about 11 pm that they were in Anchorage. They would be taking a shuttle to Seward and the ship tomorrow.
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....even though there was a lot of road construction. Since the road was two lane, that meant we sat at a standstill from time to time. That road construction is quite normal, since the weather only allows a short time frame for road maintenance.
Long time Alaskans often joke that we have only three seasons.....Winter, Break up and Construction! Unfortunately that's actually a pretty accurate description!
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Jennifer / Eeyore is my favorite!! OMG - He's sooooo grown up!!!! And an EAGLE SCOUT!! I can still remember my cute little Tiger Cub! 2016 Reading Goal - 75 books
Wonderful two days! Love the wildlife at both Anchorage and Seward!
It was really fun to see all the wildlife.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Those birds are making such a racket!! A nice day before the cruise.
Weren't they, though! You could also hear the sea lions along with the birds at times.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jenifermg0
Long time Alaskans often joke that we have only three seasons.....Winter, Break up and Construction! Unfortunately that's actually a pretty accurate description!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Great photos of the birds. Would love to get to Seward and the surrounding area some day.
It is a beautiful area. We could have spent more time there, I think.
Today we slept in and snacked in the room for breakfast. Our bags were out around 11 for a truck pickup and delivery to the ship. We gathered in the lobby and loaded up with Bill on Sanford for one last time. We were expected at the ship around 1, so Patricia and Bill had decided to take us to Exit Glacier, before heading to the ship. Our hotel was actually on Exit Glacier road so it wasn’t too far away. We spent about 45 min. there and took the short hike to the best viewing area. It was another beautiful day and the glacier was quite nice.
After that we headed to the ship, the Celebrity Millineum. We said our good-byes to Patricia and Bill. They had given us a terrific first week’s tour and we were most appreciative. We headed into the small terminal and got through the lines quickly. Soon we were on the ship.
We have never sailed on Celebrity before, only Disney and Royal Caribbean. This was a nice ship, but not nearly as elegant as either of the others. We were trying them for two reasons. First, we have been disappointed by food on both the others recently and had heard Celebrity had really good food. Secondly, we liked the specific itinerary and cost. Since we had originally planned 3 staterooms (all balconies) and DH and I were paying for it all, we were trying to keep the budget in mind. We were in room 9173, which had a slightly larger balcony due to the configuration of the ship. Lauren and Jon were just down the hall in 9161. This is the top stateroom deck on this ship. It was directly below the kitchens from the all day buffet restaurant. There were times when we heard a lot of rolling carts, but it really wasn’t that bad. I might also add that because deck 10 was cantilevered out wider than the rest of the ship, the braces for that deck impeded a bit of the view from the balcony if you looked in certain directions. If we sail on this ship again, I will opt for deck 8.
We really didn’t do much this afternoon, but get settled in. After we had lunch at the buffet, we headed to our room, which was available. Most of our luggage arrived quickly and we unpacked and checked things out. We were doing My Time Dining and I had made reservations for 7 for each night. When I looked at the daily newsletter, I noticed that the muster was scheduled for 7:30. Oops, that’s not going to work. I headed down to the restaurant and got us rescheduled for 8:15, which was the first time open after the drill. Lauren and Jon were taking a bus down from Anchorage to the ship and were projected to arrive around 4. They finally got there at 6! It was a happy reunion. They showered and changed clothes. At 7:30 we headed to the lounge where we were mustering. It was rather chaotic. They checked your cabin number off as you came into the room. We all hung out together there until we were finally set free. We headed straight across the “hallway” to the restaurant for dinner.
We had a beautiful window table to watch as we sailed away. The food was indeed quite good, but we encountered the first situation of what was to be a recurring theme—bad service! Our wine sommelier was excellent and she followed us all week to help with our package. Everyone except me signed up with her for a wine tasting the next day. (I don’t drink.) Our server and assistant were lousy. There was no introduction of the menu, and it took me forever to get my iced tea. As I said, though, the food was good and we enjoyed our meal and our first night of the cruise.
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The glacier photos are beautiful. Too bad about the service on the ship. Celebrity has such a good reputation for food I assumed the service would follow.
Signing on, I've been loving your TR so far. An Alaskan cruise is on my bucket list and I hope to do it within the next few years. Sorry to hear about your poor service. We sailed on Celebrity about 10 years ago (I forget which ship, maybe Galaxy?) anyway, it was great service. However, a lot can change in 10 years.
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